Food allergies can make kids targets for bullies

7:06 AM,
Nov. 6, 2012

Dealing with a food allergy is tough, and kids who don't understand the danger involved can make it even tougher.

Written by

Jennifer Goodwin
HealthDay

As the mother of a child with a severe peanut allergy, Nicole Smith was vigilant about reading labels and making sure teachers and school administrators understood that ingesting even a trace amount of peanuts could kill her son.

Dealing with the allergy was challenging - and got more so when she heard an alarming story. When her son, Morgan, was in first grade, another student chased him around the playground with a peanut butter cracker, shouting, "I'm going to kill you!"

"We were shocked," recalled Nicole, whose son is now a 16-year-old high school junior in Colorado Springs, Colo. "We ...